All characters identifiable with original book context do not belong to me, but Rowlings.

"Come on Sisco!" She heard her name being called, but couldn't move. The heaviness of her cloak weighed her small frame down as her once lively blue eyes gazed now steely on the scene, the orange flames of the destruction reflecting in her pupils. "Sisco!"

"Ricky is back there!" she screamed, coming from her trance. She pointed at the collapsed tower they had moments before fled from. "We have to go back for him! Felixander!" A strand of her dark brown hair was shoved behind her ear, then her wrist firmly grasped as she was dragged off. "Ricky!" she screamed hoarsely over her shoulder.

"We can't! You-Know-Who is here! We're in the middle of a war zone!"

"He's my brother!"

"He's already dead!" His words stung. The girl jerked her wrist away, her feet stumbling away on the scorched Earth, staring wild-eyed at the boy before her. He stared back through hazel eyes. "Sisco…."

She turned abruptly and fled back to the scene they had just come from, panting as her lungs slammed against her chest. She heard her name being shouted above the roar of battle, but was too stubborn to listen.

At Hogwarts School, a little girl with dark chestnut hair sat on a stool, face hidden under a tall pointed brown hat, which hummed and whispered within her head.

"Ricky!" she screamed wildly, hardly aware of the wizards falling at her sides.

"This one here, she goes to Ravenclaw!" Her blue eyes met the identical ones of her brother, who sat at a table under a green banner. She bit her lip, and he waved sadly. The hat sighed upon her head just as he was being taken off, and said "A miscalculation! My mistake! Off to Slytherin!"

"What are you doing?" Her shoulders were clasped by one of the teachers – the herbology professor, she believed. "Leave Hogwarts NOW!"

"I can't! My brother is in there!"

"Go!"

"No!"

She jerked away, sliding past the professor and back into the battlefront, narrowly dodging the yellow streak of a curse.

"I don't know, Ricky, I don't think I'm a real witch." It was still fairly early in the year, the two nestled in the common room, and Ricktor placed down his book to stare at her once she had whispered this in his ear. Felixander also glanced up, eager to catch a snippet of the conversation.

"Why's that?"

"Well…" she twiddled her thumbs. "I'm not very good with spells or anything."

"Sisco, you are not a squib. You just need to get your nose out of the text book and actually practice, that's all." She winced – he hadn't whispered, but rather said it loud enough so that anyone within a five foot proximity could easily hear. Felixander hooted, and Sisco cast him a glare. "Come on, you're a Slytherin!"

"I… I guess."

"You heard the hat. And Neville Longbottom said it never lies." Her deep ocean orbs were no match for his sharp piercing sky eyes, and she slowly stood as he did, taking her wand in hand. "Let's practice Lumnos – you can't get in trouble there. Flick you wrist… that's it. Here, say it stronger. A little more. Remember, wrist."

"I did it!"

"Ricky!" She clambered over browned rubble, but began tumbling down before she realized it was a whole mound. She shrieked, clawing at anything and everything as her body was battered against the stone mess.

"I don't like headmaster Snape. He's weird."

Ricky laughed at his sister's sudden comment and Felix joined in. They waded a bit deeper into the murky lake water. "Man, it's kind of cold." Ricky mumbled, shivering.

"Yeah, you'd think that – Ricky! Your sister!"

Ricktor leaped, grasping his twin's hand as it waved in the air, her head begging for breath from below. He pulled her up then watched as she heaved. "Don't… step there. Hole." She mumbled, and he clenched her hand tightly.

A firm grasp took her wrist, which slid through until her palm met another. Sisco gazed up in amazement as her brother barred his teeth, leaning over a ledge as he attempted to pull her up. She found a foothold and scurried toward him, panting.

"Ricky…." She mumbled weakly.

He grinned sheepishly.

"I heard that You-Know-Who's coming. Harry Potter's going to stop him, though." Sisco glanced up nervously as her brother paced to and fro, repeating his statement. They had missed their way home, waiting for Felixander to finish grabbing his things, and now all three were abandoned, huddled in the boys' dormitories, hiding.

"Won't mom or dad come for us?"

"They're muggles, they wouldn't understand." Felixander muttered, "And my parents would probably be just plain cheeky if I came back home as a pile of soot."

Sisco chewed her index finger's nail nervously. "Maybe we should find and adult and just-"

"No! We'll get in too much trouble." Ricktor said shakily, pulling his dark hair, "There's got to be another way…."

"Floo?" Felix suggested.

"Too risky."

"Ricky, this is getting out of hand!" Sisco pleaded, glancing out the window. "We need tell someone grown we're here."

"No!"

"We have to get out of here. We need to tell an adult." Sisco tightened her grip on his hand as they clambered up the mound as he scolded her. "You shouldn't have come back! You could have been hurt. Or worse!"

"I couldn't just leave you here!"

Suddenly, a large explosion from behind them. The two turned and stared at a wall beside them as it began to crumble. "Come on, let's go!" Ricky screamed, pulling her down the other side of the mound. Both sprinted, but laced fingers began slipping.

"Ricky!" she yelped, trying to catch up to him, to clasp his hand again. But he had always been faster. Always. She hurriedly widened her strides, feeling debris knock against her shoulder. Suddenly, her foot slipped into a gap.

Eyes snapping wide, she clawed at the rubble that swallowed up to her knee. But the more she dug away, the more seemed to fall in. She screamed as a long shard of glass fell into the hole, and tugged feebly, tears streaking her cheeks. Then, she heard the sickening pop, and just as a mountain of pain began rising, it fell. She didn't understand, but there is only so much pain a body could take before it went into survival-mode, pressing hurt into the rear of conscious thought. "Ricky!"

"Sisco?" The body screamed, halting midstep and turning, only to become horrified as he watched his sibling take a sharp rock, sawing into her own flesh. And the wall above continued to waver. He began running forward, watching as she cut into her muscle, and then revealed white bone, which she feebly began to beat the stone against. Her veins became visible, falling loosely from the open flesh, vomiting red fluid about her. "Sisco…." His faced greened, and he clutched his stomach.

Her bone wouldn't break. Suddenly, a roar from behind her. She glanced over her shoulder at the collapsing building, then back at him.

"Ricky?" The small group of three was pressed against the stone wall, hiding their head in their arms.

"Hmm?"

"Hey, guys, we've got to go." Felixander said, watching as the walls of the dorm about them began to quiver.

"No matter what happens, I love you."

"I love you too sis."

Sisco stared dumbly. She knew it was over. There was no escape. And even if there was, she would most likely bleed to death before they could reach help. "Run!" She watched as he stared at her, petrified – her brother's weakness, fear. "Ricky!" she screamed, tears welling in her eyes. She offered him a small smile then soon hunched over as she coughed for breath, screaming as the walls about her fell, the dust intoxicating the air, the remains of that side of the building burying her.

But she was relieved of one thing – she saw that her brother was at a far enough distance. She didn't measure or guess. Somehow, she just knew. And as her faced paled as a bed post stuck between her shoulder and out the other side of her chest, she had that one bit of hope before she crumpled to her knees, then sucked in her last breath.

It was never released.

"I… I love you too… sis…." The padding of feet was heard as a young boy sprinted into the night, gruesome visions scarred into his brain.